Nostalgic

Yes, I have been feeling nostalgic about the Tigers lately. It is partly because they were mired in a horrible losing streak that I did not want to believe was happening, and partly because I am in love with baseball history and the Tigers. So, here is what happened on April 17th in Detroit Tiger history.

April 17, 1955 - In his 2nd full season in the big leagues, Al Kaline established himself as a full fledged star to reckoned with for the next 19 seasons. In 1955, Kaline won the American League batting title hitting .340 while knocking out 27 home runs and driving in 102 runs. Kaline finished 2nd in the AL MVP race to Yogi Berra despite having a superior batting average and 53 more hits. Kaline finished the year with 200 hits, the only year he would reach that plateau.

On this day though, Mr. Tiger would have one of the best games of his career. Kaline would hit 3 home runs in Briggs Stadium that day, including 2 in the 6th inning. He finished the incredible day with 6 RBI's. Steve Gromek from Hamtramck, MI would pitch the shut out that day as the Tigers beat the Kansas City Athletics 16-0. Gromek would finish the year with a 13-10 record and an ERA of 3.98.

April 17, 1960 - In one of the most controversial trades the Cleveland Indians have ever made, the Tigers acquired American League home run champ Rocky Colavito from The Tribe for American League batting champ Harvey Kuehn. The Indian fans thought of Colavito as the best player on their club and did not like the trade at all. Kuehn would only play the 1960 campaign in Cleveland, batting .308, before being traded out west to the San Franciso Giants. Colavito, a 2-time All-Star in Detroit, would play 4 seasons while hitting 139 dingers as a Tiger. The 1961 season would be Colvatio's best in the Olde English D. In that season he hit, .290, 45 home runs, 140 RBI's, and 113 walks.

April 17, 1993 - In the Tigers last winning season for 13 years, they scored 20 runs in a game for the 2nd time in a week. In this game they defeated Seattle 20-3.

April 17, 1981 - Happy Birthday to current Tiger, Ryan Raburn.

April 18, 1871 - Happy Birthday to former owner, Frank Navin

April 18, 1880 - Happy Birthday to former Tiger, Sam Crawford

April 18, 1983 - Happy Birthday to current Tiger, Miguel Cabrera

Tax Day Tiger History

April 15, 1983 - On a 43 degree day in Chicago, Milt Wilcox made the White Sox bats feel much colder. The 19,483 White Sox faithful at Comiskey Park (the first one), saw their team send 26 batters to the plate, and saw 26 batters retired. With two outs in the 9th inning, in stepped pinch hitter Jerry Hairston. Hairston was pinch hitting for short stop Jerry Dybzinski, who was 0-2 with a strike out on the day. Hairston would eventually single to center fielder Chet Lemon (3-4 3 RBI) and ruin any chance for a perfect game or a no-hitter. Wilcox (8 K) would get the next hitter Rudy Law (0-4) to groundout to first baseman Rick Leach (1-4) to preserve the complete game shut out. This was only the 3rd time in history a pitcher had a perfect game stopped with one out to go. The win moved Milt's record for the season to 1-1 and moved the Tigers to 5-4 on top of the American League East. Wilcox finished the season with a 11-10 record and an ERA of 3.97. He would pitch 2 more years in Detroit before moving to Seattle for his last season in 1986. The Tigers finished 1983 with record of 92-70, 6 games behind Baltimore in the race for the American League pennant.

April 15, 1993 - On a beautiful spring day at Tiger Stadium, George "Sparky" Anderson would make 3 substitutions that would let him enter the door of an elite managerial club. Tony LaRussa replaced Rich Gossage in the 9th inning with closer Dennis Eckersly to close out a 2-1 game. On the 3rd pitch from Eckersly, Rob Deer (2-4 1 RBI) would line a single to left field. Gary Thurman (1) would pinch run for Deer. Switch hitter Mickey Tettelton (0-3) stepped to the plate. After a called strike on Tettelton, LaRussa called for a pitchout on the 2nd pitch. LaRussa guessed correctly, Thurman was off trying to steal 2nd on the pitch. Thurman was safe at 2nd, and the Tigers had the tying run in scoring position. Tettleton hit the next pitch to on the ground to the second baseman, moving Thurman to 3rd, for the first out of the inning. Without Thurman's swipe, the ground ball would have been the start of a double play. Scott Livingstone (1-4 1 RBI) would then line a single to right field scoring Thurman to tie the game at 2. Sparky would now make the final two moves. He pinch ran for Livingstone with the speedy Skeeter Barnes, and pinch hit Chad Krueter for Milt Cuyler (0-3). On a 1-2 count, Krueter would drive a ball deep into left-center field to score Barnes from 1st base and secure the 2,000th win in Sparky Anderson's career. Sparky would coach through the 1995 season winning another 194 games. His 2,194 wins rank 4th on the all-time list. The Tigers would finish with season with a 85-77 record. This was the last season the Tigers had a winning record until the 2006 campaign.

More Tiger History

April 12, 1960 - Forty-eight years ago today, the Tigers acquired Norm Cash from the Cleveland Indians for 3B Steve Demeter. Stormin' Norman was a fixture at first base for the Bengals for the next 14 years, including the World Series year of 1968.

The 4-time all-star made himself a household name in his second season wearing the Old English D. In 1961, Cash hit an incredible .361, belting 41 home runs, and driving in 132 runs. Ironically, 1961 would be the only time Cash would ever hit .300 during a season or drive in 100 runs in a season. The year of 1961 would also be the last time a Tiger won the AL batting title until Maggilo Ordonez in 2007. Cash would go on to belt 373 home runs in his 14-year Tiger career.

The trade was quite a steal for the Tigers, as Cash retired from baseball in 1972, and Steve Demeter would finish the 1960 season playing in only 4 games with a .000 batting average. Demeter would not play another season in the big leagues.

April 12, 2003 - Shane Halter would hit a home run to give the Tigers their first win of the season. The Tigers record would stand at 1-9. A bad record yes, but better than 2002 when the Tigers started 0-11. The 2003 Tigers start of 0-9 would set a record of the only team since 1900 to start back to back seasons with a 0-9 record. The rest of 2003 did not get any better for 1st year skipper Alan Trammell, as the Tigers would try to match the futile 1962 Mets lose record of 120 games. The Tigers would win in dramatic fashion on the final day of the season to only finish with 119 losses.

Today in History

On April 8, 1963, the Detroit Tigers claimed on waivers little-known pitcher Denny McLain away from the Chicago White Sox. During the minor league draft the White Sox decided to instead protect Hall of Famer (not baseball) and current Top 30 all-time Piston Dave Debusschere. Oops, the South-Siders made a mistake there. After a less than fulfilling 1963 and 1964 (121 innings pitched and 6 wins) seasons with the Tigers, McLain went on to a stellar 6 year run as the Bengals ace.

McLain would go on to win 108 games in the 6 year span all culminated by the 1968 run to the World Series Championship. In the championship campaign of 1968, McLain would put together one of the greatest seasons ever by a pitcher. Along with wining the AL-MVP and AL-Cy Young, he posted a record of 31-6 (the last pitcher to win 30 games). He also posted a 1.96 ERA in 336 innings pitched. Remember, we now rave over a pitcher that is able to pitch a 200 inning season. He also had 28 complete games and 6 shutouts, two stats that would be great career numbers for today's great pitchers.

Here's to the great season of 1968.

Update - Arrested again

New Beer's Eve

Happy Anniversary to the end of Prohibition. Here's hoping for another great 75 years.

All is well with the Tigers

All is well with the Tigers, but they are 0-2 you say. Yes, they are 0-2, but Jeremy Bonderman has a 0.00 ERA in the 1st inning. :)

Wistful on a Wednesday

Some thoughts today while I watch the Tigers at work:

• Alex Rodriguez of the New York Suckees err Yankees will earn more money this year than the combined 33 man roster of the Floriday Marlins. Is any one person really worth (monetarilly) more to his franchise than another whole franchise? In the greater scheme of things probably not, but I say h-e-double hockey stick yes. I had this argument the other day with my godmother. I told her a person is only worth as much as someone is willing to pay them. The Steinbrenners think A-Rod is worth that much, so I guess he is. "But why does he get paid that much money, while doctors and teachers do not earn nearly as much money as a professional athlete" she replied. Well, the last time I checked there were 3 doctors and about 50+ teachers in my town. There are only 33 mlb'ers in the state, besides how many people do you know who would pay to go watch a doctor operate or a teacher teach. None that I know of. She changed the conversation to NASCAR, and I walked away, bacause I know nothing about stock car racing.
• Moises Alou finally put the hole Steve Bartman thing to bed. He has admitted that he would not have caught the ball anyway. The whole "blowup" was silly anyway, but that is the Cub franchise. They rank right up there with the Lions.
• "It has been a very frustrating time." Ya think Bill Jr. Your dad has not won anything in the 40+ years he has owned the franchise. Quit sticking up for him, and just ask him to step down. Enough said, I do not want to spoil the Tiger game by thinking about their neighbors.
• Isn't there a decent living caporegime in the USA who can direct his soldiers to deal with Jose Canseco. I am so sick and tired of this washed up ballplayer trying to make money from smearing people. Really, some capos out there have to read this blog.
• I had a chance to win my bracket this year. I had 7 out 8 teams going into last weekend. Well, things did not turn our very good for me, I only have 2 out of 4. UNC (national champion) is still alive, but it will be a long shot for me to win anything this year.
• This has nothing to do with sports, but this kid is a hero. Read it here.